Success! I had my first lucid dream. Only problem I experienced was going to sleep after getting up for the first time. I think it was caused by look outside my window which has a view of a bright lamp post.

I wish I had've found this technique earlier. Very reliable, hassle free, always throws me into a dream in an interesting way.
I've only tried it for the past two days, but it's worked both times. First time I just kind of appeared at the start of a dream, lucid, and thought "huh that's weird"
Second time (last night) I did some weird OBE thing where I floated out of my body then was stretched and distorted. That was fun.

Just one problem. Though it's not really a problem because I can still use this technique with it, but... when I get to the stage of doing the steps, concentrating on the things, I keep getting distracted. I always get a song stuck in my head and/or get really twitchy and have to move a bit. Any good ways to clear my head completely?

Just one problem. Though it's not really a problem because I can still use this technique with it, but... when I get to the stage of doing the steps, concentrating on the things, I keep getting distracted. I always get a song stuck in my head and/or get really twitchy and have to move a bit. Any good ways to clear my head completely?

Hi Golvellius,

Well if you ever practiced WILD you may stumble on the same problem. With SSILD this isn't that a big of a problem. But if you want to get rid of it you need to practice how to clear your mind or how to stay calm in bed. You can do it, everybody can do it, it just takes time.

For clearing your mind meditation can help or you can use focusing techniques where you focus on one thing and you keep your awareness focused on that one thing, although I prefer passive observation technique where you try to become aware of as much things as you can but as you become aware of something you acknowledged it and let it go.

This 2 techniques might not seem like techniques that will help you clear your mind and you are right, there are techniques for clearing your mind but in my opinion with lucidity the key is awareness and those 2 techniques I mentioned do exactly that, they raise your general awareness and you might have WILD because you will acknowledge the change in your environment from hearing few sounds and body sensations to actually seeing whole dreamscapes and feeling them.

I hope I helped you a little bit but you should look into meditation and relaxing techniques...

Thanks for the advice. The part of SSILD in which you concentrate on sounds always seems to help, so perhaps I should sit there and listen to the tinnitus for a bit to clear my head. Meditation would likely just put me to sleep.

Another question, I sleep like a drunk, so, do I have to stay completely still while doing the steps?
Since I always fall asleep when I try this earlier in the night (after 4 or 5 hours of sleep) I was thinking I could do it while moving some fingers or toes to keep myself awake until I'm done.
Oh, and can I do it while sitting up instead of lying down? That would help quiet these intrusive thoughts.

Another question, I sleep like a drunk, so, do I have to stay completely still while doing the steps?
Since I always fall asleep when I try this earlier in the night (after 4 or 5 hours of sleep) I was thinking I could do it while moving some fingers or toes to keep myself awake until I'm done.
Oh, and can I do it while sitting up instead of lying down? That would help quiet these intrusive thoughts.

You can try adjust your schedule and the length of time to stay awake prior to doing the exercise. Not sure sitting up would work as that will prevent you from falling asleep. After all the goal is to be able to sleep quickly after, if not during, doing the exercise. You shouldn't try to quiet down those random thoughts though. That's the absolutely wrong thing to do with SSILD. Those thoughts are your friend.

I wish I had've found this technique earlier. Very reliable, hassle free, always throws me into a dream in an interesting way.
I've only tried it for the past two days, but it's worked both times. First time I just kind of appeared at the start of a dream, lucid, and thought "huh that's weird"
Second time (last night) I did some weird OBE thing where I floated out of my body then was stretched and distorted. That was fun.

Just one problem. Though it's not really a problem because I can still use this technique with it, but... when I get to the stage of doing the steps, concentrating on the things, I keep getting distracted. I always get a song stuck in my head and/or get really twitchy and have to move a bit. Any good ways to clear my head completely?

Glad it works for you. The song sticking your head is not a bad thing. It can be used in similar ways as visualization. Try to listen to it in your head instead of playing it yourself consciously. Don't play it by thinking about the lyrics, just listen to it as the whole no matter how faint it seems, as if your hearing the original music being played on some radio from far away. Doing this will ease the strain and help put you into a trance. As for itching, you should feel free to scratch. With SSILD you want to stay as comfortable as possible. If you moved, just do an additional cycle to compensate. Simple as that.

How well known is this technique? I feel that it should be written about more in books because it took me a while to find SSILD and its really efficient. Or maybe its just me because I find MILD and WILD hard to do